Parisians go on a defiant night of food, drink and cafe life

Parisians rallied for a night of the eating and drinking they are famous for on Tuesday (November 17), in defiance of the Islamist militants who gunned down Friday night revellers last week.

Social media reverberated with the slogan "Je suis en terrasse", an echo of January's "Je suis Charlie" movement and a reflection of how Friday's slaughter at cafes, a music venue and a football stadium hit the younger, wealthier and more fun-loving residents of the French capital.

Satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, whose newsroom was decimated in January's attacks that cost 17 lives, summed up the mood with its latest cover: "They have weapons, but screw them, we've got Champagne!"

Many of the 129 victims of the attacks were having drinks or eating at restaurants and cafe terraces in trendy eastern Paris when militants sprayed them with bullets.

"We are stronger than they think. We can't stop having a life because of some idiots who are trying to terrify everyone. I think it sets a good example to do this, we shouldn't be scared of those people and it is by continuing having a life such as what we're doing right now that we show them that we are stronger than them. It's not that I'm not sensitive but clearly we should continue with our lives otherwise what should we do, stay locked up at home?" said 17 year-old Manon.

See photos of the defiant Parisians:

"We came today to show that France is getting on with its life, France continues to to give us this light. So I hope that we will start having better news and that the year 2016 will be better than 2015 because 2015 has been a terrible year," said a Tunisian woman, Nejla Mabrouk, a french teacher in Tunis who came to Paris after the attacks which took place on November 13.

The "Guide du Fooding" restaurant guide called on French people to go out to restaurants, bars, cafes and brasseries to pay tribute to the victims, but also to help cafe owners who fear a drop in business following the attacks.

A cafe manager in the area of the Paris Opera, Jean-Philippe Trin, welcomed the initiative, saying all of his customers had cancelled their bookings the night after the shootings, and that he was braced for a slow couple of weeks.

Well-known cultural institutions including the Paris Opera, shut after the attacks, reopened on Tuesday.

Some saw the "Je suis en terrasse" (I am on the cafe terrace) slogan as the best way to defy Islamic State, the militant group which has claimed the attack and sees western ways as decadent.